Quidditch Players Don't Mix with Flowers
by CrystalBallerina
Summary: Lily and James hate each other. But not for long, if Sirius's plan works. Of course, Sirius is the worst matchmaker ever... Are Lily and James beyond any matchmaking help?
1. Intrusion on Homework

****

A/N- I've finally brought this out from the dark and have done some needed editing… This is a pre-OotP, so please don't review telling me that it's all wrong. Read, hope you enjoy, and if you do (or maybe if you don't- flames though not welcome can't exactly be stopped) please review!

Lily sat scribbling on a piece of parchment in record speed. Even in a moment of desperate homework-finishing, her posture was ramrod-straight and at first glance looked as if she belonged in a tea party setting despite what she was wearing. She wore a pink tank-top and lily-patterned, loose pajama bottoms (despite her fashion-conscious friends who told her that pink did not go well with her hair). She had flaming red (or 'auburn' as she preferred to call it) hair and green eyes that reflected her feelings. At the moment, they radiated determination. Her red hair cascaded down to her waist in waves, and she had a creamy, flawless complexion. In short, she was beautiful, and that did not escape the notice of the boys in Hogwarts. It did escape the notice of Lily though. She was always rather confused when a boy stopped her in the hall to ask her to go to Hogsmeade. Not that she ever accepted - she had duties to fulfill as Head Girl. Especially since the Head Boy didn't help.

When Lily was on the last stretch, her hand flying (her handwriting still impossibly neat) when she was interrupted.

Four boys climbed out of the Portrait Hole. Or rather, three boys climbed into the portrait hole and one stumbled out of the Portrait Hole and fell flat on his face. These were the Marauders. The biggest pranksters and the most popular boys in school.

There was Peter Pettigrew. He was a small clumsy boy who never remembered anything and reminded one of a rat. Lily always wondered why the Marauders even let him hang around them. He seemed to hang on to every word they said and worshipped them. Lily thought it was rather pathetic. But Lily was wont to look down on a Marauder any day. Well, with the exception of Remus.

Remus Lupin. Out of the Marauders he was the most studious and rational. He actually got along with Lily and actually formed a study group with her and Ayrah, one of Lily's friends. He was the mind behind the Marauder's pranks and was more serious than either James or Sirius. Girls found him mysteriously attractive and endearing and deemed him as 'perfect boyfriend material.' However, Remus already had his eye on someone and did his best to ignore the girls desperately flirting with him. He wasn't anything like Sirius, who loved attention.

Sirius. The pun 'serious Sirius' never failed to amuse him since he was the least serious of all the Marauders. Lily described him as 'too relaxed for his own good' and indeed that was true. He bordered on insanity sometimes. Most of the time. Sirius and James were the biggest players in the entire school. With dark hair and ('irresistible' as other girls would sigh dreamily) blue eyes, most girls would just die to be noticed by him. He had a vibrant dynamic around him that drew people in, and his love of mischief could only compete with James's.

James Potter. Head Boy (to the discomfort of Lily). Leader of the Marauders. Egotistical prat (Lily's name for him). Captain of the Quidditch Team (a chaser). Girls fawned over him, and as a result that gave him quite a big head. He had dark hair that could not be tamed and was always messy. Though this annoyed Lily, other girls loved the windblown look. He wore wire-rimmed glasses and had chocolate brown eyes that seemed to have indefinite depths.

The four Marauders walked into the Common Room laughing over some prank that they had just set up. Lily rolled her eyes and continued working on her Arithmancy homework. Sirius spotted her.

"Lily Willy!" He exclaimed hugging her around her neck. "Why are you up so late?" he asked her.

Lily was unfazed by his little display. She pushed him back so he was an arms-length away and continued writing with her free hand, not looking up from her work. "First of all, Black, do not call me 'Lily Willy.' Second of all, do not touch me. And third of all, I am doing my Arithmancy homework which you will no doubt be copying minutes before class from a classmate," Lily replied, her voice dripping with disdain and disapproval.

"Yep, that's right!" Sirius said happily, obviously not noticing the disapproving tone she used. While most girls melted around this point at his childlike behavior, Lily just ignored him and finished her homework with a triumphant smile and a flourish.

"Yes, and now I will be going," Lily said, gracefully getting up and closing her books. She whisked away her homework and started up the steps to the girl dormitories.

"Awww… come on Lily," Sirius pouted.

"Yes, does our presence offend Princess Lily so much?" James asked sarcastically, speaking for the first time.

Lily turned around, fixing James with a cold stare. "No, Potter, **your **presence is not fit even to offend anyone," she said and with that, she turned around, leaving James open-mouthed in disbelief.

"She just… she just…" he said to Remus who was looking very bored with the whole thing.

"Yes, James, she just called your presence unfit for anything. We all know she hates you, let's go up," Remus said sighing.

"Oh come on James. Deep inside, you like her. You two are just DYING to show each other your true emotions," Sirius said melodramatically, earning himself a punch from James.

"Hey!" Sirius protested. "Well, you have to admit that she **is **pretty," he said.

"Pretty? Evans? Sorry Sirius, that's not exactly the word I'd use to describe Evans," James said.

"Ah, well, that's what you say. But is that what you **mean**?" Sirius asked, earning himself another punch from James.

Remus dragged the two behind him up to their room. "Come on, Peter's already waiting for us to discuss the pranks!"

"JAMES POTTER LIKES LILY EVANS!" Sirius shouted before Remus succeeded in dragging them all the way up the staircase to their room. James clapped a hand over Sirius's mouth.

"Quiet, Sirius! People might hear!" He hissed into Sirius's ear. Sirius had already begun to giggle insanely.

"But that's what you really want, right?" he asked James, who sighed in irritation.

__

That's funny, Lily thought in her room. _I could have sworn that I heard a shout_. _Ah well, probably just my imagination. I really shouldn't stay up this late_, she thought as she turned off the light and drifted into sleep.

****

Please review! =)


	2. Breakfast

****

A/N: Chapter 2- reloaded and corrected. =) Hope you enjoy!

"Lily!!! It's time to get up! It's a new world, it's a new start, it's-" a shrill voice singing in the 7th year dormitories was abruptly cut off by a well-aimed pillow.

"Shut up Claire and let me sleep. What ungodly hour is it, and where is Ayrah?" Lily asked blearily.

Clarissa Ducria was a perky girl of 17. She had wavy shoulder length brown hair and soft, kind eyes. She was the most out-going of Lily's friends, and, by some weird chance, could actually get along with the all the Marauders.

"Ayrah is in the Great Hall… uh… saving you a seat!" Claire finished brightly, bouncing up and down on Lily's bed. Lily grimaced as she bounced too.

"You mean that she got tired of waiting for me to wake up and went down to breakfast already," Lily corrected. "What about you? Have you eaten yet?" Lily asked as she clambered out of her bed lethargically.

"Yes! I ate an hour ago! You weren't up late doing that stupid Arithmancy assignment were you?" Claire accused, slowing her bouncing.

"Well…" Lily hesitated. "As a matter of fact, yes." Claire rolled her eyes.

"You DO know that Professor doesn't even look over our notes, right? He simply just sees that we have something down on the parchment that states the right chapter and section!"

"Well, what if he decides to read over the notes? Or if he gets suspicious that the notes looked the same as it did the last couple hundred times? Or-" Lily asked defensively grabbing a set of clothes.

"Calm down, Lily. I have three different set of notes which I alternate on, they don't look the same!" Claire said.

"Well, how will you study for your N.E.W.T.S? You won't have anything to study with!" Lily said, taking on a whole different spin with her argument.

"Lily, Lily, Lily. It's a Friday morning! Stop trying to depress me with talk of schoolwork and N.E.W.T.S! In any case, I'd just study off yours. Just get dressed and I'll go down with you to breakfast, which will end in about ten minutes…" Claire said, trailing off looking at her friend.

"TEN MINUTES? WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME SOONER?" She rushed into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. Claire chuckled.

"I don't think she'll be too happy when she finds out that there are really forty more minutes left…" she mused to herself.

The Great Hall was filled with chattering students, all enjoying their little breakfast. At the end of the Gryffindor table, sat the Marauders leaning back in their chairs, acting very full of themselves. In other words: acting normal. Several girls flocked around them batting their eyelashes or patting their carefully done hair. James smiled at one of them and the girl immediately squealed and hyperventilated.

"Like, Oh, my, GOD," she squealed to her little friends.

Lily came rushing into the Great Hall in this scene. Claire came up behind her, panting slightly.

"If there's only ten minutes left, why are there so many people?" she asked Claire, her brow furrowed.

"Well… Slip of the tongue Lily. There are really thirty minutes left, now," Claire said happily, smiling at one of Lily's glares. The two of them scouted the Gryffindor table, looking for Ayrah. They spotted her. Lily's smile then disappeared. Ayrah was sitting right next to the Marauders.

She sighed, rolled her eyes and made her way over to them, pushing past a few of James's fanclub. She reached her seat, which was… right next to James.

"You are so dead," she hissed to Ayrah. Ayrah shrugged and continued to eat. "Well, you see… I decided that I'd leave you the honor since you came in late!" she said smiling. Lily glared and plopped into her chair. She turned her back on the Marauders and started to talk to her friends.

"So then Matthew was like 'But Professor-'" Ayrah was telling them the story of what had happened in Ancient Runes the other day. She was cut off by James.

"Why are you sitting here?" he asked Lily rudely. Lily turned her head and stared at him.

"Do I NOT have the right to sit where I please?" Lily asked placidly although her friends noticed that her hands had balled into fists.

"Not when it's next to me!" James protested still leaning back. His fanclub glared nastily at Lily who didn't seem to care.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, King James. Should I leave, just to accommodate your highness?" she asked sarcastically. The rest of the Marauders and Lily's friends waited nervously. They knew that either James or Lily was explode any moment now.

"That would be fine, lowly peasant," James said casually, leaning his chair back again. He had touched a definite nerve.

Lily just stared at him incredulously for a moment. Then she stood up and kicked his chair leg and his chair fell backwards. James fell onto the ground, none too gracefully. Lily looked down at him and hissed, "You are the most egotistical prat I have ever met!" With that, she stalked out of the Great Hall. The fanclub gathered around James, promising revenge on that 'stupid Lily girl.' James got up, refusing help from his admirers, rubbing the back of his head.

"Wow, you know, she looks kinda cute when she's angry!" Sirius said brightly. James just glared at him. Sirius smiled more.

Lily's friends looked at each other, then set off at a run after Lily. Who knew what destruction she was capable of causing in her present mood?

****

A/N- the song that Claire begins to sing/shriek in the beginning to wake Lily up is from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron sung by Bryan Adams called "Here I Am."

Please Review! =)


	3. A Plan is Born

****

A/N- Chapter 3 reloaded! Only minor changes in this… Hope you enjoy!

Lily muttered angrily to herself as she stomped through the hallways in Hogwarts. Being 'lowly' wasn't something she could have taken in stride. In school, the Slytherins mocked her for being a 'lowly Mudblood.' At home, her own sister called her a 'lowly freak.' In Primary School, the cruel kids thought the name 'Lowly Lily' was extremely funny. She hated that word- she hated inferiority. She threw herself into schoolwork sometimes just to prove to herself and others that she was not lowly that she was on the top. _But,_ she thought bitterly, _that probably makes me a lowly bookworm._

"Stupid… prat… prick… egotistical… James…" She grumbled to herself as she accidentally stubbed her toe since she couldn't see where she was going as her head was bent. She passed empty classroom after empty classroom, until she grew so weary that she finally went into one to let her anger simmer. Her auburn hair tumbled over her shoulders and looked slightly windswept, and her brilliant emerald eyes were darkened with anger. Footsteps that were heard in the hallways outside signaled her friends. Finally, Ayrah looked into the empty classroom Lily was in and saw the back of Lily's head.

"Lily!" Ayrah said breathlessly. "We were looking for you! Come on Lily, classes are going to start any minute now, if you don't hurry, you'll be late for Charms!" There was a note of urgency in her voice, as she and Lily seemed to be the only seventh years that cared about their schoolwork. She flicked her long black hair back impatiently as anxiety dawned on Lily- it was a Friday, and she was off throwing tantrums over an immature baby! There was work to be done!

Lily jumped up, murderous thoughts of James dispelled for now. "Oh no! My bag is at the tower! Don't wait for me; tell the others to go straight to class too! Oh, and tell Flitwick I might be late!" With that, she rushed by to the Gryffindor Tower, which, (conveniently enough) was across the whole school.

The rest of her friends looked after her and then down at their watches and hurried to Charms.

James had not been in a pleasant mood after breakfast. For one thing, his head still hurt from when after Lily, no not Lily, _Evans_, had kicked his chair. He rubbed the back of his head, wincing a bit- oh yes, Evans would pay for that one. For another thing, he had been delayed at breakfast because of _Evans_, and because he had been busy cursing her name for the rest of breakfast. He hadn't brought his bag down because he hadn't counted on ranting over the evils of Evans. Evil Evans… He smiled grimly to himself as he imagined what her reaction would be to his new name for her. His bag was still up in the Gryffindor Tower in the boys' dormitories. He needed his bag too since Flitwick has assigned a particulary long essay that James had been forced to do by candlelight late at night. He couldn't afford to have people seeing him study- he had a reputation to uphold. He smirked slightly as he thought of what other people thought of him as: dashing, intelligent, charming, handsome, noble, gentlemanly, witty… and all of a sudden, Evans's words came back to him, unbidden: '"You are the most egotistical prat I have ever met!"' He scowled. Evans just had to ruin every thing for him didn't she?

Lily hurried into her dorm room nervously checking her watch as she did so. She had exactly two minutes to get to class before she was late. She sprinted up to her bed throwing everything aside as she looked for her schoolbag and her Charms Essay. Finally finding her Charms Essay under Claire's multiple copies of 'Witch Weekly' and 'Enchanting Enchantresses,' Lily proceeded digging through all their junk until at last she found her bag. She hurriedly stuffed her essay in it and ran down the steps to the common room. _I'm going to be late! I'm going to be late! I'm going to be late!_ She chanted to herself in her mind with each step she took.

To say that James was in a hurry was an understatement as he threw all of Sirius's things haphazardly around the room looking for his bag. Remus's neatly folded stack of clothes was not a stack anymore nor folded. Peter's pile of books were scattered throughout the room. Finally, James had the good sense to think straight for one second. _Of course! The summoning charm!_ "Accio bag!" he shouted and grinned in relief as his bag zoomed out from under his bed. Unfortunately he had said the charm with too much zeal and the heavy bag rammed into him, which did not improve his mood any. He scowled at the bag and picked it up, going to the charms classroom at a dead run. This was most definitely not his day because on his way out the portrait hole he had just managed to knock Evans off her feet. He stopped for a moment and stared.

Lily could not believe her eyes. This inconsiderate git had ran out of the common room as if he was being chased by dragons and had the nerve to knock her down and not apologize or help her up! It wasn't as if he was the only person in the world! She was late for charms! "Are you going to stand there gawking or help me up? She asked crankily.

"Oh… um… sorry Evans," he mumbled as he pulled her to her feet. Lily tossed her head and continued in her dignified speed walk, her robes billowing behind her.

James rolled his eyes then remembered- Charms! He sprinted after her.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked acidly as she glanced beside her to see James walking right by her, matching her step by step.

"What do you think? I'm going to Charms!" He said looking straight ahead.

"Since when have you cared about classes?" Lily inquired none too politely as she tried to quicken her step. James matched it. After all, she may have been a quick walker but he was a fit Quidditch player.

"In case you haven't noticed, Evans," James said spitting her name out. "I happen to care about classes. Unlike you, my life just doesn't revolve around them."

Lily stopped for two reasons. She was in front of the Charms classroom. The second reason was because she was about to blow a gasket. The remark was just too much for her. She blocked the doorway and poked her finger into James's chest.

"Potter, you are an insufferable, hypocritical git who just doesn't know when too far is too far," she whispered fiercely and turned on her heel to stalk into the classroom barely on time. James stared at her in disbelief – was it just him or had he detected a note of hurt in that?

He walked into the classroom to hear Flitwick's squeaky voice saying, "Late Mr. Potter!" Then, he concluded that it had to have been the worse day possible for him as he found that his regular seat by Sirius was taken by Sirius's new girlfriend and the only seat available was by Evans.

Lily shot him a look radiating disgust as she moved her bag to the other side of her chair and moved her desk a bit closer to Ayrah.

James was very relieved when it was time for Quidditch practice. None of his other classes had been much better today. On top of that, his annoying fanclub had thought today to be the perfect day to stalk him, which only added to his distress. Quidditch was something that came naturally and was always a joy to do. Plus, Evans wasn't on the team. Where was Sirius though?

The person in question was in the common room whispering conspiratedly with Remus, Peter, Ayrah, and Claire.

"We HAVE to get them to like each other! Well, to admit to like each other. It's OBVIOUS that they already like each other!" Sirius said.

"You're on crack Sirius! Lily and James HATE each other!" Claire contradicted rolling her eyes.

"Well, if we get them to like each other, they'll stop having these ridiculous fights!" Remus said thoughtfully.

"That true… I really am getting sick of it," Ayrah said thoughtfully.

"I think it's a great idea! But both Lily and James are really smart. They'll be able to see through this very soon," Peter said worriedly. It was true. Lily and James would figure it out and then they would have an absolute cow at their friends.

"We'll just blame it all on Sirius if they do find out," Remus said.

"Oh thanks," Sirius said sarcastically. "Since you all agree, let me tell you my first plan! I think the old cliché plans will work just fine. If we just lock them together in a closet, it'll work, just like that!" He said, snapping his fingers. "Then, they'll thank us! I need to go to Quidditch practice, I'll talk to you guys later. Ta-ta!" he said loudly causing a couple of people to stare at him strangely as he pranced out the portrait hole.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Ayrah asked softly.

"It's not just you…" Remus said with apprehension.

****

A/N- Please review! =)


	4. The Closet

A/N- Yay, Chapter 4 is reloaded too! 

"WAKE UP EVERYONE!" Sirius bellowed at the top of his lungs and with the aid of a Sonorus charm. "YES IT IS A BEAUTIFUL SATURDAY MORNING! RISE AND SHINE YOU SLEEPY HEADS! THE SUN IS BRIGHT AND... SUNNY!" Sirius finished with an infuriating grin as his fellow Marauders began to wake up grumpily with murderous thoughts toward their insane friend who had woken them up **early** on a **Saturday**.

"There better be a good reason for this, Padfoot," James croaked grumpily, but Sirius didn't answer him. He had begun to sing.

"OH MISTER SUN, SUN, MISTER- MMMMMMFF!!!!!" he sang, suddenly cut off by falling over backwards by an attack of a volley of pillows. Putting, he stood up and pointed his wand at his throat muttering, "Quietus."

"You guys are no fun!" he whined.

"Shut it Padfoot," Remus said as he retrieved his pillow and went back to his bed, shutting his curtains tightly. The other two followed suit, with James pointedly soundproofing his curtains. Sirius sighed dejectedly.

But only for a minute.

"Hey guys! This is the perfect time to plan out our locking-James-in-a-closet-with-Lily thing!" He exclaimed rather loudly.

Remus and Peter poked their heads out of their curtains simultaneously to make sure James had indeed sound-proofed his curtains well. A snore escaped from James's bed and they sighed in relief.

"You could have been more careful you know," Remus said ruefully as he climbed out of his bed half-heartedly. "And besides, I don't think the girls are up yet."

"Oh James is very adept with his sound-proofing… I stay with him in the summer a lot," Sirius said snickering **(A/N- yes, I know, no magic in the summer but work with me here!)**. Remus rolled his eyes. "And anyways, girls are ALWAYS up early. Except Lily," he added as an afterthought. "But then that's perfect! We can plan in peace without James or Lily in the way!" he said brightly. Remus groaned at his sanguine friend and shut himself in the bathroom.

"Yeesh, someone's not a morning person… Right Petey? Petey?" But Peter had already fallen back asleep.

Remus and Sirius walked down to the Great Hall where they found Ayrah eating breakfast. Sirius shot Remus a triumphant look and bounded over to her, leaning on the back of Ayrah's chair.

Ayrah shot him a dirty look and said, "Black get off my chair…" She scooted her chair in and picked up her wand. Sirius drew back before she got the chance to curse him.

"Hey Ayrah! I just-" he began before he broke off and looked around him. "Hey, where's Claire?"

Right on cue, Claire came in the Great Hall muttering to herself. "…won't wake up… sound-proofed curtains… impossible… n- Sirius! What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Did she really soundproof her curtains?" Remus asked.

"Oh yeah… she got annoyed with me for waking her up early…" Claire said nodding emphatically.

"Really? See? Lily and James belong together! They're so alike! James did the same thing too!" Sirius said excitedly, ignoring Remus who was muttering to himself.

"You would have charmed your curtains too if you had to listen to Sirius sing 'Mister Sun…'" Claire patted Remus's arm sympathetically.

"All we have to do is get them past their 'extreme hate' stage! Ok, I'm here to start planning our lock-Lily-and-James-in-a-closet-together plan!" Sirius said brightly. "The first thing we need to do is to find a nice, small closet. Wait… actually the first thing I need to do is… EAT!" Sirius exclaimed. He dug into his scrambled eggs with vigor. The girls looked disgusted at his disregard for table manners and Remus just rolled his eyes before starting his own breakfast (in a much more dignified manner).

"Okay, now that we're full we can start!" Sirius said happily and began to skip down the corriders earning himself many strange looks.

"Hey Sirius! Sirius! SIRIUS!!!" Ayrah shouted to get his attention.

"Yes milady?" Sirius asked calmy.

"Stop…" Ayrah began struggling to find a word to describe his behavior.

"Nancing," Claire finished for her.

"As you wish!" he said sweeping an elegant bow. He proceeded to skip down the corrider.

"What did we tell you?" Claire hissed as she caught up to him and grabbed the back of his robes to prevent him from skipping away.

"I'm not nancing! I'm skipping!" he replied.

"I think she meant to start walking normally. It wouldn't exactly do for people to notice us scouting out potential closets," Ayrah cutted in wryly.

"Good words of wisdom, my fair lady!" Sirius cried nobly and struck a noble pose while winking at a group of giggling girls who promptly started swooning. Claire sighed and grabbed Sirius by his wrist, dragging him off.

"Look guys! There!" Remus suddenly said as he saw a little door.

"Hmmmm… Yes, that could do…" Sirius said looking the closet over. All of a sudden he shoved Remus in the closet and twirled Ayrah in after Remus and shut the door in their faces, locking it.

"What was THAT for?" Claire demanded, reaching for the doorknob.

"Nuh-uh-uh," Sirius said, shooing her away from the closet door. "This way we'll see if it really is perfect!" he hastily exclaimed lest she punch him in the eye.

"You will let them out soon won't you?" Claire asked anxiously looking at the rattling doorknob and listening to the muffled shouts. "They could break down the door or something!"

"Unlikely, but we'll put an Unbreakable charm on the door just in case…" Sirius said casually flicking his wand at the door.

"What about wands? We all know how to do a simple 'Alohomora' spell…" Claire said.

"Good point. We'll have to make sure that they don't have their wands when they go in… Oh look, they've stopped pounding the door! I'll let them out in a few moments," Sirius said.

They thought for a moment. "Wait… I've got an idea!" Claire said. "We could pretend to lose our wands and have to borrow theirs!"

"Perfect! We'll have to think up of a plan to get them down here though…" Sirius said thoughtfully.

The next few minutes, they outlined their entire plan. Claire was surprised that Sirius could be so methodical and careful with his planning, but then remembered that he was a Marauder. Though some may have considered his mind wasted on petty things like pranks and matchmaking schemes, Claire didn't think it was so much of a waste… She could see the benefits of Lily not ranting to her everyday about James. Plus, Lily could do something about James and make him less conceited while scaring off his fanclub who wouldn't continue their stalking habits anymore. Definitely some major good points. It was at that point in her thoughts when Sirius remembered…

"Oh yes, Remus and Ayrah…" He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the door saying, "Alohomora!"

The door burst open, revealing Ayrah and Remus holding hands and moving closer… before they toppled out of the closet.

They both scrambled up blushing furiously at the raised eyebrows.

The Claire gave a 'you-HAVE-to-tell-me-what-happened' look to Ayrah while Sirius did a little jig.

"Remus has a GIRLFRIEND Remus has a GIRLFRIEND!!!!" he sang much to the displeasure of Remus.

"Lily and James will be a cinch then!" Sirius crowed.

"Well, actually, considering the fact that Ayrah and Remus don't loathe each other, it might not be quite so easy…" Claire said cautiously.

"Well, anyway, here's the plan…" Sirius began.

"So what happened?" Claire asked eagerly.

"What happened where?" Ayrah asked innocently.

"Duh! In the closet! With Remus!" Claire exclaimed.

Ayrah grinned. "Well, I've always liked Remus you know," Claire nodded. "And we started talking in the closet… And then he asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him…" Ayrah said finishing with a dreamy sigh.

"And…" Claire prompted.

"Well, of course I accepted. And then we sort of held hands and that's when the door opened," Ayrah said briskly.

"EEEEEE!!!!! Remus asked you out!" Claire squealed.

"Well, it's not really a date…" Ayrah said although she sounded a bit wistful.

Claire rolled her eyes and said, "Of COURSE it's a date! You like him, he likes you and you go to Hogsmeade with him- just the two of you? What else would it be?"

"Actually, he didn't actually say that he liked me-" Ayrah corrected but was cut off by Claire squealing.

"Oooooooooh!!!!!! We have to pick out an outfit for you!" Claire said excitedly.

Ayrah mock-groaned. "Well, all we have to worry about now is the Lily-James-closet plan… Activates as soon as they get up right?"

"Yep. Seeing as it's ten o'clock, Lily should be waking up around… now," Claire said checking her watch. "Ok, let's get to our positions!"

A few minutes later, Lily rushed down the dormitory steps and into the Gryffindor Common Room. She was greeted by a frantic Claire. "Lily! Oh my gosh! I can't find my wand and I need it for my Charms homework! Please can I borrow yours?" she pleaded.

"Of course, of course," Lily said handing it over. "I'm off to the kitchens seeing as I've missed breakfast! Meet you back in here later, okay?" Lily asked. Claire nodded.

"Thanks for the wand, sooooo much!!!" Claire said waving as Lily climbed out the portrait hole. She twirled the wand in her hand and look at the closed portrait hole thoughtfully.

"Hmmmm… Mrs. Potter… sounds like an old lady name… Lily Potter… it sounds strangely _right_…" Claire mused to herself. Then she rushed out to meet Ayrah by the kitchens hoping that Lily was not taking the way that she was.

James got up and looked at his clock. It read 10:12. "Ten twelve??? Why didn't Sirius wake me up? Ugh!" He exclaimed climbing out of bed in a bad mood. After a quick shower, he was in a better mood and decided to find his partners in crime. Luckily for him, one of them was headed right toward him.

"Hey Remus! I'm off to the kitchens for a bite!" he said.

"Oh wait, before you go James, could I borrow your wand for a second? I have this great new idea for a prank and I need two wands to complete experimentation," Remus explained.

"Oh sure, sure!" James said handing it over and heading off to the kitchens.

Claire and Ayrah spotted Lily down the corrider heading right for the kitchens. "Ok, Ayrah you have to keep her preoccupied so James can get to the closet first. Tell her about you and Remus… Ask her for advice or something, okay?" Claire hissed. Ayrah nodded and Claire walked off to wait right at the kitchen door.

"Lily! There you are! Did you sleep this late?" Ayrah asked Lily as she ran to meet her.

"Yeah… I like my beauty sleep…" Lily said smiling.

"Oh, you'll never guess what happened!" Ayrah said.

"I won't even try, so tell me," Lily replied.

"Remus asked me to go to the next Hogsmeade visit with him!" Ayrah said excitedly.

"Really? Ayrah that's great! He finally asked you out?" Lily asked amazedly hugging her friend.

"Well, it's not really a date…" Ayrah began while Lily put on her 'yeah-right' look. "I'm so nervous though… I mean, what if it was just a dare or something? Or what if it's just a 'just-friends' thing?" Ayrah asked worriedly.

"Oh it's not!! Besides, if it was a dare (which I'm sure it isn't- Remus is too nice for that) then Claire, and I will personally pound him and whoever put him up to it. So tell me all about it! When did it happen? What happened?" Lily asked eagerly.

Ayrah retold the entire story, except she made it sound as if Remus and her were alone in the Common Room early in the morning. While she talked they walked to the kitchens together, but very slowly. Together the two girls discussed whether Ayrah should dress up or not, and what to do with her hair. Lily was all for Ayrah's usual casual look, but Ayrah was divided.

"Come on Ayrah! You look gorgeous normally, and if he likes you normally, than you shouldn't have to dress up for him! Your face just screams natural beauty anyway!" Lily said.

Ayrah smiled at her. Finally they reached the entrance to the kitchens where Claire was waiting. She was all out of breath, huffing and puffing. Ayrah supposed that she must have jogged in place to look like that.

"Hi Claire! Did you run or something?" Lily asked. "That eager to get to the kitchens? Wait, aren't you doing your Charms homework?"

"No… I knew… you were… going to be here… so I ran…" Claire said in-between big breaths. Ayrah had to hand it to her she was a great actress.

"What for?" Lily asked curiously.

"Boggart… in a closet… can't get rid of it… You're Head Girl… great at these things…" Claire said.

"Why didn't you ask a teacher?" Lily asked as she was led away to the closet by Claire.

"All in a meeting…" Claire said.

"Well, okay… Boggart here we come!" said Lily.

"Hey James!" Sirius yelled. "JAMES HAROLD POTTER!!!!!"

"You didn't have to scream my whole name you know…" James muttered to Sirius as he went over to him.

"I didn't… But I wanted to! Now everyone knows that ickle Jamsie's middle name is 'HAAAAAROOOOOLD!'" Sirius said grinning.

James just rolled his eyes. "So why did you call me over?"

"Oh! There are these great prank supplies in this closet! You have to help me get them! I can't carry it all by myself! Come on! We have to go NOW!" Sirius said dragging James away.

They walked down the corriders until they came to the closet. "They're in here!" Sirius said, opening the closet door.

James peered inside. "Hey Sirius! I don't see any-" he stopped mid-sentence as Sirius had given him a hefty shove into the closet. Deftly closing and locking it, Sirius smiled to himself.

"It's right here!" Claire said pointing at the offending closet. It was shaking and reverberating but it also had (strangely enough) muffled shouts.

"Hey Claire, are you sure that's not just someone inside? Boggarts don't normally talk…" Lily said looking at the closet dubiously.

"So it's a special boggart!" Claire said defensively.

"Well… okay… but I'm going to need my wand you know. You do have it with you right?" Lily asked.

"Of course!" Claire said brightly as she moved closer to the door. She held out Lily's wand, but before Lily could grab it, Claire had opened the door shoved Lily in it and locked the door again.

"Hmmm… Yes, all in a day's work of Clarissa Ducria…" She said happily as she skipped off humming the Wedding March.

James was annoyed. Very very annoyed. Why did Sirius shut him into a tiny closet where he barely fit into? What was up with that? And he didn't even have his wand to get him out of this! He had screamed and pounded at the door for hours (it seemed) but nobody had opened the door. He sighed and then commenced his screaming and pounding.

All of a sudden the door opened. Before he had the chance to dash outside of it though, someone was flung bodily at him and the door was locked in his face. Again. The closet was barely big enough for one person! And now there were two! He turned to glare at the person and found angry green eyes glaring back.

"EVANS?" he yelled.

"Potter," she said acknowledging his existence with a slight inclination of her head. "Fancy seeing you in this drab closet."

"It wasn't my choice," he said sulkily. He shifted uncomfortably. Due to the lack of space, he and Lily were very close. Very very close. If he looked directly down, he could count the individual hairs on her head.

"Believe me Potter, I have more things to do than to be stuck in a closet with you. It's no picnic for me to have to lean right against you," Lily hissed.

"Why are you here anyway?" he asked Lily.

"Claire told me that there was a boggart here and as I was about to fight it, she pushed me right in here. I can very easily imagine how you could be someone's worst nightmare though…" Lily said thoughtfully.

"Are you saying you're scared of me?" James asked laughingly.

Lily narrowed her eyes. "The day I'm terrified of you is the day I die," she said menacingly.

"Well I hope that day is soon," James said lightly.

"Why are YOU here?" Lily asked.

"Sirius told me that there were prank supplies in here and when I went to have a look, he shut me inside," James said.

"Prank supplies? How immature are you guys?" Lily asked. "Nevermind. I already have a pretty good idea."

"So… our friends set us up, huh?" James said.

"I've no idea why," Lily said rolling her eyes.

"Well, perhaps they thought that Miss Evans needed an excuse not to resist the old Potter charm," James said smiling benignly.

"Potter charm? What charm? There IS NO charm!" Lily corrected him.

"Oh come on Evans, you so like me," James said smiling infuriatingly in what he clearly thought was a 'charming' smile.

Lily stared at him in distaste then slapped him.

"What was that for?" James yelled.

"For being yourself," Lily said smiling innocently.

Then for the next hour, Lily and James stood in silence. Lily found herself wanting to sleep. To just relax against James and go to sleep. But she reprimanded herself sharply. It was the principle of the thing. She could NOT relax against Potter. She could NOT have a good time with Potter. It was the unwritten rule.

Finally, the closet door opened, and they fell on the ground, quickly standing up. Lily and James shielded their eyes from the bright light.

"Sooooo… is it Hogwart's newest couple? After Ayrah and Remus of course…" Sirius said.

"We're not a couple yet…" Remus murmured carefully studying his shoes. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"No, Black. You are sorely mistaken if you think that I will be one of Potter's newest flavor of the month. Now if you will excuse me…" Lily said sharply turning on her heel with her robes billowing after her.

"Me and Evans? Seriously… get your head examined Padfoot," James said as he walked away.

"Oh yeah. That went well. Now will you believe me when I say that they hate each other?" Ayrah asked.

"Hey… We need to get them to kiss. If we just get them to kiss then they'll just fall in love instantaneously!" Sirius exclaimed.

Everyone groaned.

****

A/N- Love it? Hate it? Please review!


	5. Hogsmeade

****

A/N- squeal I love my reviewers… -

Lily flipped through yet another Witch Weekly magazine muttering about how she was going to scream if she saw another article about Love Potions that went awry. It was Saturday, which meant it was a whole week from the Incident. That was what Lily referred to it as- the Incident. Her friends had told her to lighten up, and that it couldn't have been horrid to be stuck in a closet with the almighty James Potter, but Lily seriously disagreed. She and James had actually managed to thoroughly cow Sirius after the Incident. Lily didn't think he'd be trying it again anytime soon. Of course, Lily was wrong. This was, after all, SIRIUS we are talking about. Asides from being a week away from the Incident, it was also the day of Ayrah's 'date' with Remus.

Lily had stuck to her word saying that Ayrah was gorgeous normally and didn't need to dress up. Claire had enlisted the help of Rose, a Ravenclaw friend who Lily and Ayrah had helped tutor before. Rose eagerly agreed to help and she and Claire insisted on going over Ayrah's entire wardrobe. That was infact, the reason why Lily was sprawled on her bed reading Claire's magazines.

After a whole hour, nothing had been decided other than the fact that Ayrah was going to wear her flared jeans.

"What about the pheasant top?" Claire asked holding it up.

"Hmmmm… I don't know. Make-up or no make-up?" Rose asked.

"I really have no clue. But if I had make-up I do NOT want to be slathered in it," Ayrah said, wrinkling her nose at the thought.

"Well, let me just try some on you… If you don't like it than you can wash it off," Rose said opening her make-up case.

"Wait, hair up or down?" Claire asked eyeing Ayrah's waist-long black hair.

This time Lily actually answered. "Definitely down," she said. "Just dress casually! It's REMUS. He likes you already! You don't NEED to impress him!" she said with a pleading note in her voice.

"I guess… but I want to all the same!" Ayrah said.

"That's the spirit gal!" Claire cheered and held up a white blouse. "Too dressy?"

"Well… A little bit… I'm thinking layers for Ayrah… I think we should go for dressy in a casual way- but not too dressy," Rose said.

"What about this underneath a sweater?" Claire asked again this time holding up a red tank top.

"That should work. Here Ayrah. How do you like it?" Rose asked giving Ayrah a mirror.

"Hmmmm… could you do it a bit lighter… I don't want to appear to be trying…" Ayrah said.

"Good idea!" Rose said wiping all the make-up off.

"I give up on you guys! I'm going down to the Common Room alright? And don't let them get you all fancy Ayrah! Okay?" Lily asked not able to stand any more girlishness. Her friends, completely understanding her abhorrence of anything remotely 'girly' barely glanced at her.

"Okay! So we have my outfit down right?" Ayrah asked Claire.

Lily rolled her eyes and closed the door. "Phew!" she breathed then walked down the steps with a stack of Claire's magazines.

"Lily! Is Ayrah up there?" Remus asked her as soon as she came into the Common Room.

"Oh yeah! Claire and Rose are having a ball picking her outfit out and stuff. The girlishness was starting to choke me… I needed to have a breath a fresh air…" Lily said rolling her eyes.

"Wait! I don't have to dress up do I?" Remus asked panicking.

"No, no. I think they've decided on a 'dressy in a casual way' look, so no need to worry. They don't believe me when I say that you don't need any impressing," Lily said wryly.

"She's perfect the way she normally is! You're right, I don't need any impressing. I just need assurance!" Remus said looking extremely nervous.

"Hey don't sweat it! Ayrah clearly likes you, you two will be the perfect couple! Oh and at least PRETEND to be impressed when she comes down alright?" Lily asked.

"I probably will be anyway. Does she really like me?" Remus asked trying to make his voice sound casual, not hopeful.

"Both of you are so incredibly blind. Duh she likes you!" Lily said rolling her eyes. "Well, I see Rose and Claire coming down… That means Ayrah is finished," Lily said.

Sure enough Ayrah stepped down to the Common Room. She was wearing a white cardigan and underneath she had a red tank top. Her hair was down looking as silky and perfect as ever. Lily had always envied Ayrah's hair. Ayrah wore flared dark blue jeans and sneakers. There was barely any trace of make-up on her face. She smiled shyly at Remus.

"Wow, Ayrah! You look great!" he said smiling at her and sounding truly sincere. Rose and Claire high-fived behind them. "Shall we go now?" he asked as if in Court, offering his arm.

Giggling, Ayrah took it and replied, "Okay."

Together they exited the portrait hole.

"They make the perfect couple, don't they?" Lily asked almost a bit wistfully.

Rose and Claire nodded.

"I hope we'll all find someone as perfect for us as Remus is to Ayrah," Claire said. Lily agreed, though she never knew that the person would be so close…

"So where do you want to go?" Ayrah asked.

"Depends. Where do you want to go?" Remus asked.

"No I asked first. Where do YOU want to go?" Ayrah asked smiling.

"Fine, you beat me to it. Want to check out Zonko's?" Remus asked.

"Sure! I'll be shown around by one of the experts!" Ayrah said laughingly.

Remus just laughed as they walked together to Zonko's.

"Hey Sirius!" James called.

"Yeah?" Sirius answered back.

"Do you think Ayrah's the girl for Remus?" he asked.

"Hmmm? Oh yeah. Definitely. Some people are just meant to be with each other," Sirius said wisely (failing to pull off his 'wise' look).

"Yeah I guess…" James said.

"What's the matter Jamesie? Thinking of a certain FLOWER?" Sirius asked teasingly.

"Huh? Flower?" James asked. After a moment he got it. "Ugh! You mean EVANS? Are you crazy? I told you before! I. Do. Not. Like. Her. Okay Sirius?"

"Touché… You know your heated denial could just verify my point more!" Sirius said smiling.

"UGH! You are impossible!" James said throwing his arms up in despair.

"You know… that's what exactly what Lily says and does to me too!" Sirius said earnestly.

James growled. When was Sirius ever going to let go of the silly notion about He and Evans (he shuddered at the thought) being together?

"That was really cool!" Ayrah said as she and Remus walked out of Zonko's with bags filled with prank items.

"You know, you're the first girl who has ever actually taken a genuine interest in stuff in Zonko's!" Remus said delightedly.

"So do I pass the 'Remus test?'" Ayrah joked.

"With flying colors," Remus said gazing down at her. He quickly snapped out of it. "I chose last time. Your turn. Where do you want to go?" He asked.

"Oh ummm… How about Honeydukes? Hey you know… we should start putting those look-a-like Sugar Quills we bought in Zonko's in action!" Ayrah said wickedly.

"Great idea!" Remus said. "Race you there!" He started at a dead run.

"No fair! You got a head start!" Ayrah yelled.

Sirius looked at Rose, Claire, and Peter and began to pace. (Claire had dragged Rose into it saying that if she was going to have to suffer through a Sirus meeting, then she'd bring someone down into it as well.) "The last plan was a setback. It failed. But we can still do this! We will prevail! James and Lily WILL get together darnit!" Sirius cried nobly. "Hey are you two girls listening to me? HELLO?"

"Hi Sirius. Face the facts. Lily and James. Hate. Each. Other. Okay?" Claire asked rolling her eyes.

"That's just on the outside! Come on! If we keep on doing this, then they'll start to gradually like each other!" Sirius said. Rose snorted and he glared at her.

"I was thinking mistletoe-"

"Black, in case you haven't noticed, this is NOVEMBER. Christmas in NEXT MONTH," Rose pointed out.

"So? We can wait. Bide our time. That way Lily and James won't suspect us anyway," Sirius explained.

"I don't know why we're doing this," Claire said dully as she scooted her chair in closer to begin plotting again.

"Because you love me," Sirius said smiling earning himself two whacks on his head. "Owwie!" he pouted.

Rose and Claire smiled innocently.

"Great! That was great!" Ayrah gasped as she remembered the shocked looks of people as they took a sample of their Sugar Quills.

"They should know better than to take candy from strangers!" Remus said chidingly.

"Right, sure. I almost felt bad. But the side affects wear off anyway!" Ayrah said brightly.

"That's right! It's kinda cold, want to go to the Three Broomsticks?" Remus suggested.

"Sure! Butterbeer, here I come!" Ayrah said. "Race you!" she said after she started running.

"That was very cheap!" Remus shouted after her as he began to run too.

By the time they got to the Three Broomsticks, Remus had caught up to Ayrah. He smirked while Ayrah stuck her tongue out at him. Then both seemed to realize how incredibly close they were. Just… inches… apart… Ayrah quickly turned and walked into the place flushing a bit.

Remus followed. "I'll go get our butterbeers," he offered.

"Th-Thanks," Ayrah said mentally scolding herself. She had been doing so well before and had managed not to make a fool of herself and had actually ENJOYED herself, she couldn't start blushing and stammering like a fool. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice that Remus had already arrived with the butterbeers and had set one in front of her. He was busy with his own thoughts.

_How do I ask her?_ He wondered. _'Ayrah, I want you to know that-'_ No… that sounded dumb. Direct approach? _'Ayrah will you go out with me?'_ No… He should tell her that he liked her before asking her out. _'Ayrah I really like you and-'_ that sounded pathetic already. He sighed and then saw Ayrah accidentally knock over her butterbeer making it spill over the table onto his clothes. He looked up to meet Ayrah's mortified eyes.

"It's oka-" he began but was cut off by Ayrah wringing her hands.

"I'm so incredibly sorry. I don't know how I could be so clumsy! I'm so sorry! I really didn't mean to and I-" Ayrah stopped. Remus had taken her hands and gently placed them down. She stared at him for a moment, and then they both leaned in. Their first kiss was innocent and sweet, when they broke away they stared at each other some more.

"I suppose this would be a good time to ask you to be my girlfriend," Remus said quietly.

Ayrah just smiled and leaned in to kiss him again.

"Yes."

****

A/N- REVIEW please! I didn't do much changing at all… There wasn't that much to change and I couldn't really change Remus and Ayrah's date though I'm not too pleased about it…


	6. Morning

****

A/N- Hope you enjoy!

Ayrah hummed happily as she twirled her way to breakfast the next day. She floated by a sleepy Lily and a bemused Claire. She, of course, knew perfectly well what had happened the day before. Claire had stayed up late to drag it out of her, squealing at the appropriate parts while Lily sufficed with congratulating her before stating that she would rather sleep then listen to Claire's interrogation.

She met Remus in the hallway to the Great Hall. Smiling happily, she went up on her tiptoes to peck him on the cheek before they both entered the Great Hall for breakfast. For a while the Great Hall remained silent. A Marauder? With a non-ditzy girl, and a Gryffindor at that? Sighs of disappointment could be heard at the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables where some Remus-fans sat. Of course, Remus and Ayrah were oblivious to any of it and merely sat across from each other shyly looking up once in a while.

Sirius broke the spell by entering in with a bang. He had been in a particular good mood that morning. Good enough to transfigure Snape's hair into a bar of soap. He now had Snape in a full body-bind and had turned him over and was busy scrubbing the floor with Snape and a mop. No, not a mop- it was too suspiciously BLONDE to be a mop. Sure enough when Sirius turned, an enraged Lucius Malfoy could be seen, struggling in vain against the full body bind. Most of the school started to laugh hysterically.

"Tralalalalalalala!!! I'm cleaning the floor! Tralalalalalala!" Sirius sang happily as half the Slytherin House stood up in anger. The other half continued eating- Malfoy and Snape weren't that popular within their own house. Dumbledore stood up in amusement his eyes twinkling and lips twitching, but McGonagall got there before he did.

"Black! What do you think you are doing?" She yelled at Sirius furiously.

"I'm cleaning the floor ma'am. I should think what was obvious," Sirius said back, not in the least perturbed by her anger.

"Detention! You are NOT ALLOWED TO TRANSFIGURE STUDENTS BLACK! And twenty points from Gryffindor," McGonagall said glaring at Sirius. Sirius shrugged nonchalantly. McGonagall waved her wand and stalked off. Malfoy and Snape got up, rubbing their heads ruefully and sending Sirius looks of utmost loathing.

"Nice cleaning with you too chaps!" Sirius said cheerily.

"My father will hear about this!" Lucius said furiously.

"Your ol' pater must know me pretty well by now!" Sirius commented. And to that, Lucius had no response so he slunk away amid howls of laughter to his Slytherin place.

Lily and Claire had arrived by now and were looking at Sirius in disbelief. Rolling their eyes, they walked to their spots by Ayrah. Lily absently noted that they would be sitting with the Marauders much more now that Ayrah was with Remus.

Sirius smiled at the girls before bursting into huge, fake sobs. "My baby Remus is all growed up!" He wailed, drawing a few stares. Remus scowled at him and elbowed him while Ayrah glared at Sirius.

"Sirius, SHUT UP!" The three girls chorused in union. Fortunately for them, Sirius had found a new target.

"Oh Jamsie Wamsie!" Sirius said. "Lily Willy beat you to breakfast today! Isn't she looking nice? Aren't you going to declare your undying l-" Sirius was cut off rudely by Lily and James who had both kicked him. "Owie! That hurt!" Sirius wailed.

"Sirius. I do not like Evans. Get it through your thick head," James growled at Sirius, who acted a bit hurt, but immediately began to amuse himself by flirting with his fanclub which started to writhe in excitement as he started to pay attention to them.

"Hey Jamsie.." A flirty female voice said from behind him. He winced at his nickname. He turned around him to see a Hufflepuff standing behind him. He'd never really spoken to her before. What was her name again? Alyssa? Alison? He wasn't sure but he knew that her friends all called her Ali. She was short with shoulder-length light brown hair. Her watery eyes looked shallow and though James could usually read people's personality and emotions through their eyes, he saw nothing but shallowness. No intelligence. No passion. So unlike Evans. He smacked himself mentally. EVANS? Sure, she was firey and seemed to have a passion for hating him. And yes, she was intelligent, but it was partly these things that made him dislike her so much. He shook his head mentally and followed his task at hand- Ali.

"Hey Ali," James said in a casual way without real enthusiasm but yet sincerely.

"Hi. I was wondering, this Saturday, do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me?" she asked batting her eyelashes at him.

James was sorely tempted to ask her if there was something in her eye, but decided against it. He really didn't want to go to Hogsmeade with Ali, having listening to her long ditzy dialogue. He'd done it way too many times with past girlfriends. The problem was, he had just recently broken up with… Cassie? Or Carrie. Whatever. The point was he'd just broken up with a girlfriend and so he really didn't have anyone else to go to Hogsmeade with. And the reason of wanting to stay back to finish homework was so un-James-like to be laughable. He turned to his friends with a silent plea for help.

Sirius didn't notice him, being engrossed with a blushing Ravenclaw. Remus was reading a book at the table. Peter was busy stuffing his face, completely oblivious to everything around him, and Claire had left the table to go talk to Rose at the Ravenclaw table. Ayrah was staring at Remus, and she wasn't a choice anyway since she was going with Remus. That left… Lily Evans.

Lily had saw Potter's look of despair. She wasn't sure whether or not to help him. As much as she hated him, she wasn't exactly a friend of Ali's either. Perhaps the two will annoy each other to death she had thought, but then realized that if Potter had to go with Ali, Ali would have the time of her life. That was a no-no. Lily made a quick decision.

"I'm sorry Ali, but P-James has already decided to go with his friends," Lily said smiling sweetly and putting a slight emphasis on 'friends.' "Rose, Claire, Peter, Sirius, James, and I were going to go together." She glanced at Sirius who was now in a liplock with the Ravenclaw. "Ok then, not Sirius," Lily said averting her eyes. She glanced up at Ali who was glowering with not-so-suppressed rage. Lily smiled angelically at her. "What a shame. Perhaps you and James could go together next on our next Hogsmeade trip." With that she got up from the breakfast table along with the Marauders and her friends who had started to pay attention once Lily had started using her "sweet" voice. Plus, she hadn't called James "Potter."

"Wow Lils, nice lying there!" Sirius said in amazement. Lily just rolled her eyes. They began walking to the Gryffindor Common Room. It seemed a bit weird to be in such a large group- and with the Marauders no less.

"I love annoying Ali. She gets on my nerves so much. Don't consider it as a token of kindness toward you Potter," Lily added.

"Don't worry I won't," James promised her. "So I guess we all are going together then! Excepting Remus and Ayrah," James said.

While Remus and Ayrah blushed, Lily made a face. "I look forward to it."

"As you should!" James said.

"Okay, seeing as we all are going to be around each other a lot now with Remus and Ayrah being together, we might as well make the most of it. James and Lily. Those are your names. Let's call each other by our FIRST names! And stop glaring Lily, I'm just being practical here. I don't think we all want to hear you and James fight nonstop whenever we're together," Claire said sensibly. They had stopped in front of the portrait hole now.

"Fine," Lily agreed petulantly.

"Fine," James said crossing his arms.

"Well, if you'll excuse me, I feel that I must go and prepare for class. Goodbye all. And James," Lily said stiffly spitting James's name out. "Stop mouthing behind my back."

James who had been in the middle of mimicking Lily stopped mid-sentence and glared after her retreating back. "Goodbye Lily," he yelled after her. She turned around and gave him a sarcastic wave.

James stormed into the Common Room after Lily did.

"And you see? This is the reason why they need to get together," Sirius argued.

"This is the reason that they won't," Claire countered. Sirius scowled at her logic.

"No they must! Then we won't have to have any of this petty fighting! Okay! I've got a new plan!" Sirius said cheering up. Everyone groaned.

"No it's a GOOD PLAN!" Sirius insisted. "Like I've said earlier… I want to work with mistletoe… Enchanted mistletoe…"

****

A/N- Please Review!


	7. Mission Mistletoe

****

A/N- Here it is…

Sirius snuck in the common room late at night darting and hiding behind furniture. In his hand he held a paper bag with… something in it. Waiting patiently with an evil grin on his face, he continued plotting out the finer details of his plan.

"Alright Sirius. We're here. Now what do you want? And by the way, it isn't that smart to be hiding behind furniture when you're right by the fire… We can see you rather clearly," Claire said smirking as she drew away from the shadows by an armchair. Behind her stood Ayrah, Peter, and Remus.

Sirius scowled at Claire. "Well, then I suppose you just won't hear about my new BRILLIANT plan," he said sniffing.

"Okay. Can we go back up to bed then?" Ayrah asked.

"NO WAIT!" Sirius said before lowering his voice as it was around midnight. "Stay. I have just acquired the enchanted mistletoe," he whispered grandly dumping a grubby looking plant onto the common room floor.

"Sirius, it's still November! Let's wait until December to put that thing up! It'll just be a couple of weeks," Ayrah said a bit exasperatingly. In other words, she wanted to go back to sleep and not plan out something that should be done in a month's time.

"But we can't wait! Lily and James must be together as soon as possible," Sirius whined. They could all see that it was no use arguing with him so they all waited patiently (or not so patiently) for him to outline their plans.

"Okay! First I think we should do this tomorrow. I plan to levitate this in the Common Room. What better time than when they're arguing over homework or whatever they do argue about?" Sirius asked happily. The other five saw his point. It would make much more sense to do this in the privacy of the Common Room as opposed to the hallway. And Lily and James were both in here a lot. "All I have to do is wingardium leviosa it over their heads, and boom! They have to stay there in their position until they go smoochy-smooch!"

" 'smoochy-smooch?' Honestly, Sirius, the term is kiss," Claire informed him rolling her eyes.

Sirius glared at her. "I will say as I please! Okay, five o'clock tomorrow?" he asked.

"That's fine," Remus said yawning. "And now I'm going to bed." He gave all of them a quick wave and Ayrah a quick peck.

"We should go too… We need lots of energy to wake up Lily tomorrow," Claire said thinking of unwake-able Lily. The two girls all said their goodnights and went up.

Sirius picked up the plant gingerly and set it in the bag.

"This'll be really interesting!" he commented happily to Peter.

"Won't they be really mad though?" Peter asked worriedly.

"Trust me Pete, they'll thank me for this later," Sirius said confidentally.

"The last time you said those words I ended up with a detention and with Malfoy and Snape beating me up," Peter muttered.

"Yes, but those were Slytherins! James and Lily are so much more different," Sirius said waving aside Peter's comment.

"I'm not so sure about that…"

Lily woke up feeling very… refreshed. She felt wide awake and had a happy feeling. Wait a minute… LILY woke up feeling refreshed? She furrowed her brow at the impossibility of the statement. Where was Claire screaming at her to get up? Where was Ayrah, quietly dumping water on her head? Judging from the light streaming in the window it seemed to be about the end of breakfast… ABOUT THE END OF BREAKFAST? She gasped in horror, all curiosity gone. Jumping from her bed she saw that the drawn curtains around the other two girls were really because they were still asleep, not because they had already gone down. Lily sprinted toward her closet all the while screaming her head off.

"CLAIRE DUCRIA!!!! GET UP NOW! AYRAH YOU TOO!" Tousled heads peeked out of the blood-red curtains. By now Lily had changed into her uniform and was running a brush through her long, silky locks of auburn hair. She wouldn't have time to put it up and keep it out of the way she thought irritably. "CLASS STARTS IN TEN MINUTES!!! GET YOUR ARSES OUT OF BED NOW!" Lily screamed at their slightly sleepy and befuddled looks. That definitely started them.

"Lily!" whined Claire "Why didn't you wake us up EARLIER?"

"I was kind of asleep Claire," Lily said dryly. "Now I'm going down to class, you better hurry up. And why were you so late anyway? How late did you stay up?" she asked incredulously.

The two girls glanced at each other. They couldn't tell Lily that they were up because of Sirius's plan!

Lily rolled her eyes at their unwillingness to tell her. "Never mind, I will probably find out later anyways," she said and walked out the door. The two blinked at the door for a moment before immediately springing into action.

Lily narrowed her eyes at her stupid bird, which did not want to become a pillow. James was by her and had already made about a dozen pillows, but she wasn't about to ask HIM for any help. She looked around the busy classroom seeing many who didn't have any more luck than Lily. Her eyes rested on Sirius who sat behind her. He could transfigure, he HAD to help her. So dragging Sirius to her desk she forced him to help her.

"So how exactly do you do this, Sirius?" she asked him briskly.

"Li-ly! Jamsie is right next to you! You can ask him to help! I was in the middle of… socializing!" Sirius pouted.

"Ahh… 'socializing..' Your new word for 'flirting shamelessly with your fan club.' Help. Me. And I'm not going to ask James for help. He wouldn't help me anyways," she pointed out. This got James's attention.

"Hey, I'm not that heartless! I would too help!" he protested while Lily snorted. "See look, Miss Head Girl-"

"See Sirius? This is why he can't help me. He'll be making snide comments about how incompetent I am while he helps me!" she exploded to Sirius. But… Sirius had already started 'socializing' again. She sighed irritably.

"As I was saying…" James continued in a horribly condescending tone.

"James cut the crap and tell me what to do!" Lily hissed at him.

"Fine," James said shortly. "You must not be aiming your wand right. You have to point it directly at the bird's left wing after the second circle."

Lily tried it. And it worked. Her parrot had immediately turned into a nice, white, plump pillow. She scowled at James.

"What? No 'thank you?'" he asked her.

"Fine. Thank. You," Lily said spitting the words out. James looked immensely pleased at this while Lily sulked.

"Are you ready?" Sirius asked in a stage whisper to Ayrah and Claire who looked a bit impatient.

"Sirius, that whisper is loud enough to carry over to Lily and James, if you want to whisper, actually whisper," Claire hissed.

"And why wouldn't we be ready? We really don't have anything to do but levitate that little plant over their heads. YOU'LL have the hard job of getting them close enough for this to work," Ayrah said lowering her voice and glancing behind the sofa to where Lily and James were. They were each at a separate table, Lily working on her homework, and James being fawned over by the girls. Ayrah had just noticed how nauseated he looked. Before, she had just assumed that he enjoyed all the attention. Perhaps this was the better side of James Potter, the side that was constantly being irked by Lily since it knew that all she said was true. She stopped her musings and paid attention.

"Hey James!" Sirius said happily barging through the gaggle of admirers. The girls immediately parted for Sirius without a second thought. "Come over here!" he dragged James away from the girls over to two chairs at Lily's table. The girls saw this as a 'serious conference' between the 'two hottest guys in Hogwarts' and left with a bit of disappointment. Once they had all left Sirius poke Lily in the arm.

"SIRIUS!!!!" she yelled at him. "LOOK AT THAT! YOU JUST RUINED MY WHOLE PAPER!" she screamed at him brandishing her ink-blotted page. Scowling at the curious looks, she muttered something and flicked her wand. All the ink disappeared. "What was that for anyway?"

"I felt like it," Sirius said nonchalantly. "See? I'll even get James just so you won't feel all alone being the only one I poked," he said cheerfully. Lily sighed at his childlike behavior and immediately went back down to her paper. Sirius poked James's arm also. Well, actually he shoved James's arm so that James was in rather close proximity to Lily. He glanced behind him to the sofa.

Rose and Ayrah brought their wands up whispering, "Wingardium Leviosa," and aimed it right over Lily and James's heads.

"You didn't have to crush me you know!" Lily was saying to James.

"It's not my fault! Sirius pushed me!" James yelled back.

"Oh, and how mature is that? Blaming everything on everyone else? A little poke wouldn't make you fall into me!" Lily said angrily as she took out another huge inkblot. "Well, I'm going upstairs so I can actually continue this paper in peace," she said huffily as she got up. And crashed back down. "WHAT THE…?" she yelled looking for the invisible force that had pulled her back.

James wasn't even commenting on her rude descent back into her chair. He was looking above her head. She looked above too.

Mistletoe.

He was really going to have to kill Sirius for this. Sure, they'd used it for a lot of pranks on people, but playing a prank like this with him and Lily… That was out of line. Not that they were ever in line either, but it was out of Marauder line. Or James line. Obviously, Sirius was not giving up on his idea of having Lily and James be together.

"SIRIUS!" Lily screeched.

"Hmmm? Well, the girls and I must go and… research something in the Library. See you later!" Sirius said waving her goodbye before disappearing into thin air. Wait a minute… thin air?

"Sirius wherever you are give my cloak back," James hissed to the air next to him. Lily looked rather confused. "I mean it Sirius, give it back! And do the counter spell for this stupid plant!"

The air by him chuckled. "A true Marauder. Yet, you of all people should know that there is NO counter spell for enchanted mistletoe." Lily looked as if in deep thought.

"So you've got an invisibility cloak…" she said commenting to James.

"And look! Now you've given it away to her!" James said furiously.

"Hey you didn't have to talk to me," Sirius said.

"I refuse to… to… kiss that tub of guts across from me," Lily said furiously.

"Fine then. You'll be stuck like this for eternity," Sirius said gleefully.

James groaned in frustration. There was no way out of this. Well, he was going to take his time. He was going to annoy Sirius so much. He would not do this until he absolutely HAD to.

It was 11 o'clock and Lily had already finished all her homework. It had been three hours since Sirius had put the mistletoe over them and he stood in front of them now in the Common Room looking worn out and pleading.

"PLEEEEASE! James, Lily, PLEASE! Then we can all go!" he beggged.

"You can go now if you want," Lily said.

"And miss this? No way!" Sirius said incredulously.

"I'm not giving in," James said.

"Neither am I," Lily said equally as determined.

"ARGH! Well, remember guys, I'm doing what is right for all of us," Sirius said as he walked up to them. He tipped James's chair forward and pushed Lily toward James.

They kissed. Lily saw in slow motion as Sirius pushed her, coming closer and closer and closer… She saw James's shocked face as she was unable to defy the force of gravity and the connected at the lips. They stayed there for a second, too shocked to comprehend what had just happened, but then simultaneously moved apart as quick as they could. The mistletoe fell down onto the table and turned into ashes.

Lily wiped her mouth on her sleeve. "Sirius, you are a despicable person. Don't you ever do that again," she said warning Sirius.

James looked about ready to kill.

"Erm… so does that mean it didn't work?" Sirius asked timidly.

If Lily's glare could intensify even more, it did as she stomped upstairs. Sirius grinned apologetically at James.

"It was a good kiss?" he asked hopefully to James's scowling face. James gave no reply but stomped up much the same way as Lily had.

"Well, it was worth a try…" Sirius muttered.

****

A/N- I think I've become too lazy to do any real revising or editing… Anyhow, the next chapter will be new, and I'll try my best to get it on ffn soon.


	8. Missions

A/N- New chappie, hope you enjoy it! I know that I've said that it's Pre-OotP, but I may use some OotP references, but I will still keep this love/hate. Sorry about my contradicting uncanon-ness.

* * *

Sirius was on a mission. Anybody could tell that from his handsome yet determined and persevering stance. Or the way he paced the floor- in an adorably troubled masculine way, yet with a touch of sensitivity-

"Sirius! What are you doing?" Claire's voice broke through his slightly narcissist thoughts and he scowled at her.

"Can't you tell when someone is having a quiet moment of revelation and self-worship?" he asked her, annoyance written all over his face.

"Self-worship," Claire snorted. "Doesn't surprise me at all. But your little quiet moments should not be happening when you've gathered us all here for something 'important' that you refused to say exactly what it was, though it's clearly obvious that it's some other stupid plan (that won't work) to get Lily and James together."

"It was NOT clearly obvious, and for your information _Clarissa,_ you are wrong," Sirius said smugly. "Because I don't have a plan."

Claire sighed and groaned. Sirius looked around him. "Hey where are Remus and Ayrah? And Peter? Oh wait, Peter's in detention," he said to himself.

"Remus and Ayrah decided to leave you alone in your 'quiet moment of revelation and self-worship' and have gone over there," Claire said pointing to a table where Remus and Ayrah sat across from each other working on homework and sneaking glances at each other.

Sirius harrumphed at Remus. "Some Marauder he is! Ditching his own friends to go to **homework** with his **girlfriend**! His** non-ditzy** girlfriend. There _must_ be a Marauder rule against this," Sirius said muttering to himself. Claire slipped away rolling her eyes unnoticed by Sirius.

"Well Claire, I guess it's just you and me," Sirius said after he snapped out of it. He smiled at the air in front of him and then immediately frowned. "Claire?"

Lily went down to the kitchens and tickled the pear looking around her whilst she did so. What on earth did Potte- no, _James_ want with her? If it weren't for her suspicion that it had to do with getting back at Sirius, she wouldn't have agreed to come at all. Not as if he gave her room to agree or disagree, he'd ordered her to. She grumbled to herself and she thought of that and stepped into the kitchen. Immediately, houselves swarmed around her.

"Hello Miss Lily! Would you be liking some more chocolate ice cream? There's plenty left over from dinner!"

"Chocolate chip cookies?"

"We've just made a fresh batch of brownies!"

"Your usual mocha coffee?"

Lily laughed and declined all their offers. "Actually, I'm here to meet someone, not eat, sorry."

The houselves looked mildly disappointed before disappearing to cook again. Lily stared after them wondering if she should reconsider and just get some coffee when someone bowled into her, knocking her to the ground.

"Ouch! Po-James! Why don't you watch where you're going?"

"Sorry E-Lily. It doesn't help matters much when you stand right in front of the entrance," James shot back at her. Lily didn't have anything to say to that, so she just pursed her lips.

"What are we here for?"

"Actually, we're here so I can show you a room where I will actually tell you why I asked to meet you. Because under normal circumstances I wouldn't," James said somewhat loftily.

"So shut up and show me the room," Lily snapped.

James smiled enjoying her aggravation and waved at the entrance. "After you," he said in a gallant voice. Lily raised her eyebrows at him but went first nonetheless.

After James climbed out of the kitchen, he unfolded a piece of cloth that Lily hadn't noticed before, and she stared curiously at it. The material looked like it was made of water, and it shimmered before her. James shook it out and Lily realized that this must have been the Invisibility cloak that he owned.

"Okay, we'll have to get under this since we won't want to get caught," James said as he opened the cloak and motioned to Lily to come over.

Lily came over and James draped the cloak over them. Lily noted that this was probably the closest she'd ever been to James before (of her own free will- the stupid closet did not count) and it made her rather uneasy. She attempted to shift away from him unobtrusively but succeeded in doing nothing but earning a strange look from him. She decided to pay no attention to anything but the direction they were going.

James stopped in front of a portion of wall, but Lily didn't notice and continued to walk before James quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Unfortunately, he pulled a little too hard and Lily toppled over into him. Moments later, they were on the floor rubbing their heads, the Invisibility Cloak in a heap around them.

"Ouch E-Lily. What was that for?" James demanded.

"You wrenching my arm out of my socket and making me overbalance," Lily replied acidly.

James glared back. "In any case, we're here. It's called the Room of Requirement and it…" He went on and on sounding more and more condenscending. Lily gritted her teeth. _I just need a room that will allow Potter and I to plan out a prank for Sirius, not a stupid history book tour of this castle._ She shot him a dirty look as she walked away down the hall.

"Hey Ev- Lily where are you going?" James was shaken out of his explanation of how the Room had been used in the past and theories of how it had been discovered. She threw him a scathing look.

"Away," she replied shortly.

James rolled his eyes. "Come back here! I've just been explaining about this room!" He said gesturing to empty wall space.

Lily walked back over and turned to look at the wall skeptically. "I know you have glasses, but perhaps you need to get the prescription checked. That's a wall, not a door." But as soon as the words were out of her mouth, a door appeared in the wall and James grinned smugly. Lily just gaped at the door. Quickly gathering his cloak and pulling Lily behind him, he entered in the room.

"This is the Room of Requirement. As I said earlier," James repeated sounding a bit miffed that she had not bothered to listen to his explanation. "Now down to business. We must get back at Sirius."

"Sirius is probably the hardest person to prank though," Lily replied thoughtfully. "He'd take any prank in stride so the prank can't exactly go with embarrassment…"

"Sirius is NOT the hardest person to prank!" James said indignantly. "I am."

"Yeah right. I'm sure that's what you'd like to think but-"

"It's not what I'd like to think – it's what I know and what you know. You simply do not want to acknowledge my greatness-"

"Does your conceit have no bounds Potter? Honestly, all you ever do is talk about how great you are! Well news flash- far from being great, you are nothing but a stupid, arrogant, imbecilic, moronic, idiotic, asinine, conceited prick!" Lily screamed at him thinking about all the times that he had tried to assume superiority over her. She was tired of it.

Without a second glance at him she exited the Room, all thoughts of Sirius and revenge out of her head. James frowned a bit at her words and then another thought popped into his head. He sighed. "How are we ever going to get Sirius back?" Feeling irked that she wouldn't cooperate, he decided to do it own his own. After all, he was the Prank Master of Hogwarts he thought to himself a bit smugly.

'…stupid, arrogant, imbecilic, moronic, idiotic, asinine, conceited prick!' The words popped into James's mind unbidden, and he scowled at them. Was it his fault if she couldn't ever take a joke? _What an uptight little priss_, he thought disdainfully.

"Eureka!" Sirius cried at his library table loudly. Madam Pince glared at him dangerously, but Sirius ignored her. It wasn't as if he was ever quiet… or ever studied, it wasn't too clear to even him why he was in the library anyway. "I've got it!" His eyes lit up with excitement and he hurried off to tell everyone else. _Oh this'll be very interesting indeed…_ he thought wickedly as he headed towards the Common Room.

* * *

A/N- I hope you liked it! Please review! I won't know what you think of it unless you do. =) Feel free to give me any suggestions or anything. Thanks for reading! -


	9. Christmas at Hogwarts

****

A/N- wheeee, I'm updating! Thanks so much to _The all mighty and powerfulM, marauderbabe289, rachel132, DarkHuntress, Kita, Tari, and Shuichi66_ for reviewing!!! You all rock!

And without more delay…

* * *

"Bye Lily!" Claire, Rose, and Ayrah chorused as they set off to the train. Lily waved back merrily but inside felt anything but. All her friends were going home for Christmas, but Lily really had no desire to hear the word 'freak' one more time from Petunia if she went home so she decided not to. Christmases weren't any fun anymore anyway ever since her parents died.

"Bye Lily! Early happy Christmas to you!" Peter said before jogging towards the train.

"Bye Peter," Lily said, but without much enthusiasm.

"Take care Lily… and don't let James get to you," Remus said as he passed by.

Lily frowned. That was probably one of the main reasons she was upset- she'd be in the Gryffindor tower with only James and Sirius to keep her company. As if they were any improvement from no company at all. "Since when do I ever let him get to me?" She replied haughtily to Remus who decided against answering truthfully to that and left shaking his head a little.

Lily stood and watched the last of her friends leave her alone with the most notorious of the Marauders, but then dismissed the thought as being melodramatic and turned to go back to the tower. Before she was poked in the side.

"Sirius!" She screamed. The air beside her giggled. Lily sighed in exasperation and reached over and tugged and the Invisibility Cloak came off spectacularly. She narrowed her eyes at him before setting a brisk pace towards the Gryffindor Tower with James' cloak in hand.

"Lil-leeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Sirius whined as he matched her pace and attempted to grab the cloak back. "Jamsie is going to kill me if you take that!"

"As if he wasn't going to kill you from your insanity anyway," Lily said to Sirius who pouted.

"How'd you know that anyway?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh, I don't know… Lucky guess? By the way Sirius, while we're on the subject of James, here's a direct command from both of us," (Sirius started jumping up and down squealing childishly that Lily had said 'us' at that point and only quieted down after a withering glare.) Lily continued on as if she wasn't interrupted, "Do not try and get us together."

Sirius shrugged. "Okay." Lily stared for a moment.

"That's it? One single word of consent from you? You'll comply to our wishes just like that?" Lily asked incredulously.

"Unless you don't want me to," said Sirius concealing his excitement.

"Of COURSE I want you to!" Lily said rather loudly causing some people to stare. She ignored them. Sirius felt his excitement die down a bit. Oh well, he still had that brilliant plan… "Oh! I know what you're getting at Black! You are going to say that you won't try anything at all so then James and I will let down our guards and we won't be expecting anything when POW -all of a sudden you'll spring some kind of trap on us! But you won't be doing this until very much later when we've finally been convinced that you won't try anything at all. Except that's not going to happen because guess WHAT Sirius? I've found out your plan and it won't work anymore. And if you try to set us up together regardless of the fact that I've found out your plan I will hex you into the next century!" Lily huffed and stalked into the Common Room.

Sirius blinked. "Wow that girl seriously overthinks." He smiled wickedly of the thought of Lily on the lookout during the whole break expecting him to shove her and James into each other at any moment when in fact he really _wasn't _planning anything. It would be foolish (he decided) to do anything while the others were gone. There would be no one to hide behind when Lily and James went to curse him.

Lily shoved the cloak into James's hand. "Sirius gave me his word that he wouldn't try to set us up together during break, but since he said that I think that he'll actually just wait for us to believe him and then spring a trap on us when we're least expecting it," she stated matter-of-factly.

James looked up from his sprawled position on the couch where he had been reading _Quidditch Through the Ages_. "Come again?"

Lily sighed irritably and shook her head. "Nevermind."

James placed his invisibility cloak on the other side of him absentmindedly and began to continue reading. Then he noticed the cloak. _Wait a moment…_

"LILY!!!!!"

A disgruntled Lily descended down the staircase. "What?" she snapped.

"This is my cloak." James said gesturing to the heap of silvery material next to him.

"And?" Lily asked, her eyebrows raised.

"You just gave it back to me," James stated.

"Yes?"

"Which MEANS that you had it in your possession!" James shouted as he picked up and hugged the silvery material close to him.

At this, Lily's eyebrows went higher. "Please, James, trying to sound smart as you reach your conclusion does not match up at all with jealous actions of a three-year-old. And for your information, I took the cloak from Sirius who was using it to poke me."

James narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Is she telling the truth?" he asked his cloak. The cloak, being a cloak, did not give an answer. But James tilted his head to the side and stared intently at the cloak as if it really were telling him something. Then he nodded. "Alright Lily, I'll let you off this time," he said sternly.

Lily rolled her eyes.

"And about that… I've been thinking," James said as Lily mustered up all her self-control not to ask whether it was a first. "You, Sirius, and me are the only 7th years left at the castle this Christmas. And you know, Christmas is all about giving and such, so…"

"Please get to the point," Lily said trying to sound polite.

James gave a tiny glare. "Basically, I'm proposing a truce over break. I won't annoy you, you won't hit or yell at me. If we're about to fight, we leave the room before anything happens."

Lily stared at James trying to read what was behind his hazel eyes, but she couldn't see anything. She nodded slowly. "All right then…" she agreed warily wondering if she was going to regret her choice.

It had been the right choice though, Lily soon found out. Though there had been many complications in the truce at first, leaving Sirius in the Common Room alone started to become a rarer occurrence, and Sirius was especially gleeful. The three 7th years spent their break outside in vicious snowball fights, inside talking, in the kitchens where they caused the house elves to go into raptures of delight from compliments, and roaming the castle. Many times, conversation between James and Lily was stiff, but, as Sirius noticed, not forced.

"Where to today Sir Sirius?" James asked in his most gallant, knight-ly voice.

"I'm not sure. What does Lady Lily say?" Sirius asked turning to look at Lily.

"Excuse me," Lily replied back haughtily with a sniff. "I **do** believe that my title is _princess_. Please address me as such."

"Oh what a terrible mistake!" James said deciding to play along after a brief internal struggle.

"Please Princess! Don't kill me!" Sirius wailed as he threw himself at Lily's feet and grabbed the hem of her robe. "It was a simple mistake!"

Lily grimaced and tugged her robes from his grasp. "From a simple person."

Sirius grinned and bounced up again. "So, where to, Princess Lily?"

"Honestly Sirius, I can't believe you just threw yourself at Lily's feet," James remarked with a touch of disgust.

"Oh? And I'm not good enough to be revered and worshipped?" Lily asked. James blinked. He had not seen that one coming. And it was Christmas Eve, he didn't want to have a fight on Christmas Eve! He began to turn away but then heard Lily laugh. "Don't be stupid James." He bristled a bit at the reprimand. "I was _joking_."

"Oh." Was his intelligent response to this. Lily rolled her eyes.

Sirius whined. "You still haven't answered my question yet, Lily!!!"

"Well, I dunno. Aren't you two supposed to be Marauders? You know the school better. _You_ find somewhere to go," Lily replied.

James gasped. "Did Miss Lily Evans just say that we know something **better** than her, Sirius?"

Sirius nodded gravely. "I do believe so, James."

"Oh shut it, you two," Lily said accompanied with a glare.

"To the kitchens it is then," Sirius said and capered out of the Portrait hole with Lily and James running to keep up.

The wailing sound of a horn awoke Lily the next morning. She groaned and rolled over before screaming. "SIRIUS!!!! JAMES!!! GET **OFF** THE BLOODY STAIRCASE AND LET ME SLEEP!!!!!!"

But the wailing noise continued and she heard the mirthful laugh of Sirius and a small chuckle from James. "Ugh. Let them laugh, they're just have to slide down that staircase until I want to come back down," Lily muttered before trying to block out the noise. But a knock on her door stopped her plans.

"Um, you're Lily Evans the Head Girl right?" A timid-looking 5th year asked.

"Yes," Lily snapped not appreciating having her sleep interrupted.

"Could you please… um… go down? Sirius Black and James Potter want you to go down and they won't let us sleep until you do..." the girl said and trailed off.

"FINE," Lily snarled as the girl took a step back and ran to her dormitory. "I am going to have their heads for this," she muttered and went down the staircase.

"Hello Princess. You look ravishing today," Sirius said offering her an imaginary rose.

Lily, of course, looked a bit short of ravishing that Christmas morning. Her nightclothes were wrinkled, her long red hair mussed, and she was alternately glaring and blinking the sleep from her eyes.

James laughed. "And you're quite the morning person I can tell."

Lily was about to retort when she yawned widely. "What the heck did you make me come down for anyway? It's way too early in the morning!"

"Merry Christmas to you too!" Sirius said happily beginning to dance around the room.

"It was his idea," James said jerking his thrumb over his shoulder at Sirius. "He wanted you to come to our room and open your presents there so we could have a, and I quote 'big, happy present-opening!'"

"And why can't we all just open our presents downstairs?" Lily asked.

"Because it took me forever to train the house elves to arrange my presents nicely and artistically and you can't make me ruin it!" Sirius said petulantly stopping his dance around the room. James rolled his eyes.

"So now I'm the one that has to carry all my presents over to your room?" Lily asked scowling. "Anyways, I'm not allowed up there. I'm a girl."

"Oh come on. No one follows those rules anyway," James said.

"Excuse me? You're the Head Boy! You shouldn't be saying stuff like that! As the Heads we're supposed to uphold the rules, not encourage people to break it!" Lily shrieked.

"So you're scared to come to our big, bad room?" James scoffed.

"I am NOT! Just watch me!" Lily huffed as she stalked to her room and easily levitated all her presents with a flick of her wand and walked down the stairs again and without a glance at the two boys, walked right up the opposite staircase. James and Sirius shrugged and followed her.

She walked up the winding staircase holding her wand steady, careful to maneuver her presents away from the walls so that none bumped into something and broke. She climbed the staircase step by step passing by numerous wooden doors when-

"Um, Lils?" Sirius asked tentatively to a fuming Lily.

"Don't call me that!" Lily said and turned around abruptly, one of her larger presents barely missing Sirius's nose. It was only his Quidditch training that made him duck just in time.

"Lily," Sirius amended. "You passed our room," he said motioning to the door she had just passed. She scowled and pushed open the door.

"I knew that."

"Sure you did Lils-ly," Sirius said skeptically. James snorted.

Lily ignored them. She was too busy looking at their room.

"Wow," she breathed.

"Mind moving?" James asked sarcastically, but for once Lily didn't notice though she did slap him out of habit. She was still staring at the room.

The Marauders' room was nothing like the pigsty that she'd imagined. The curtains of their canopy beds had been changed from scarlet velvet to a shimmer cloth of red, green, and white. The ceiling was crisscrossed with muggle Christmas lights and around the room were wreaths of holly. Poinsettias peeked from every corner and in the center of the room was a colossal Christmas tree complete with ornaments. Lily was dimly registered the fact that Christmas carols were playing in the background. She hadn't seen a room so cheerfully decorated with Christmas spirit since the days she went home for Christmas when her parents were alive.

James broke the moment. "I told Sirius and Remus that it was a bit too girly with the flowers and wreaths all around, but they wouldn't listen."

Lily shook herself. "No, no. It's beautiful!"

"Exactly," James said and pushed past her. Sirius was already in the room bouncing on his bed, and Lily went in and sat directly underneath the Christmas tree.

"Look Lily!" Sirius said pointing at his present pile… which was not a pile. There was a tower of seven packages that looked the same but in different wrapping paper and Lily recognized her own present to him in the tower. She worried for a moment that all seven packages were the same but shook the silly thought out of her head. Around the tower were other packages forming a circle, and around that another circle. She noticed that the outer circle all had tags that said things like 'To Siri! Luv ya!' with the I's dotted with hearts. Those would be from his admirers then. And then, forming a platform underneath the other presents were many presents (exactly the same size she noted) that formed a square.

"I'm so glad the elves got it right this year! It's their last chance. You see it actually take a long time to organize this sort of thing," Sirius said as if he were a teacher. "First, you gotta send a note to every admirer in the school that presents sent to Sirius Black must be put in a 5x5x5 box. Then you have to tell the house elves how to arrange this: In the middle there will be a tower of presents from my friends. Silly little creatures kept on putting my girlfriends' presents in the middle as well. But no. The girlfriends' presents as well as other friendly acquaintances are put in the innermost ring. Then around that is the admirer's ring. The chief and more prominent admirers' presents are placed there. Underneath everything is the admirer's square. That's where my normal admirer's presents go," Sirius finished. Lily gaped at him.

"Yeah, he's mental. He kept on harping on the elves everytime they got it wrong and placed some admirer in the wrong place or something," James said as he sat in the middle of a big pile unwrapping a present. "Sirius? Who's Lisa Dunhy?"

"Lisa Dunhy. 4th year Hufflepuff, brown shoulder-length hair with blue eyes. Giggles a lot," Sirius replied promptly as he began to unwrap the first package from his tower of presents from his friends.

Lily shook her head in amazement and began to unwrap her presents. She had definitely misjudged the Marauders.

* * *

****

A/N- hope you enjoyed it! Sorry that nothing too important happened in this chapter, but I just decided to make this Christmas-y chapter a turning point for Lily and James. To tell you the truth, I kinda got annoyed with writing their fights too. Anyway, thanks for reading! -


End file.
